Ginataang Sitaw at Kalabasa with Crab

Here’s the second crab recipe, everyone!  First recipe was a basic crab with garlic butter sauce. This time, I served the crab with... vegetables! This ginataang sitaw and kalabasa with crab is the perfect way to make the kiddies eat veggies.   Succulent crab mixed with creamy coconut milk make the dish really savory, and of course the kids love mashing the squash into their rice.  Makes it more fun to eat, no?

Again I took shortcuts in preparing this dish.  Living in a condo surrounded by, well, more condos, there’s not much marketplaces.  Sure you can find carts that sell fruits and vegetables on the sidewalk, but not so much the coconuts.  Therefore, I resorted to using ginataang gulay mix.  Hey, whatever makes life easier, right?

Anyway, here are the ingredients I used for the dish

• 800 grams of squash (kalabasa), cut into one-inch cubes
• 5 pieces of string beans (sitaw), cut into two-inch long pieces
• Chopped garlic and onion
• Salt and pepper to taste
• Steamed crab, chopped into serving pieces
• 2 pouches Knorr Ginataang Gulay mix, 45 g each

The steps I did are the following:

• As with most filipino dishes, I sauteed the garlic and onion in vegetable oil until the onion turned translucent and the garlic fragrant
• I added in 2 cups of water, then mixed in the Knorr mixes. I used two pouches because we had around a kilo of crab, and the kiddies always love a lot of sauce in our meals.
• I raised the heat to high to bring to a simmer, then reduced to medium.  I made sure to mix the sauce thoroughly to avoid lumps.
• After simmering for around 3 minutes I added in the squash  and cooked until almost tender, then the string beans.  I don’t really time it, I just poked the vegetables occasionally with a fork to check their doneness.
• Finally I added in the crab.  My mom had already whacked the crab into smaller pieces, for easier serving and eating.  The crab was already cooked so I just stirred in as conscientiously and carefully as I can, making sure the crab got coated in the sauce and at the same time not accidentally mashing the squash. Once the crab was heated through it’s done!

And there you go! This recipe fed 4 adults and 2 children happily, with some leftover for lunch the next day.  I hope you give this a try and let me know what you think.  Happy reading!